Cubic Blog

Welcome to the Cubic Transportation Systems blog! We will be posting about automated fare collection, contactless/mobile payment, other new trends in transit fare collection, real-time passenger information systems, integrated traffic management systems and NextCity - our vision for the future of transportation. Follow us on twitter at @CubicTS for updates on our latest postings.

Boris Karsch, capability development leader for Cubic Transportation Systems Australia, takes a strong interest in improving the way consumers interact with mobility systems. He is leading Cubic’s development of the Nextcontact traveler support and information solution, as well as the Nextledger platform that will provide an integrated clearing and settlement system for a multi-operator environment.

Cities Take Steps to Smarter Transportation

One piece of our Nextcity vision is the ability to pay for all modes of transportation with one form of media. This includes paying for train, ferry and bus fare, parking, tolls and even bike and car shares. There are some cities that are taking steps in the right direction to make payment integration seamless between modes.

In Brisbane, Australia, transit riders can now link their go card to CityCycle, the city’s bike share program. Linking their go card to a CityCycle account makes it quicker and easier for riders to access CityCycle. Riders can go to the Brisbane City Council’s CityCycle website, create an account and link it with their go card. Whenever a customer needs to use a CityCycle bike, all they need to do is to walk up to the on-street kiosks, scan their go card and enter their CityCycle PIN. And off they “go” At the moment, billing accounts remain separate, with one account for the bus, train and ferry and another for City Cycle but further integration is planned for Phase II.

Meanwhile in the Rhine-Main area of Germany, transit riders are now able to use their RMV smart card for much more than urban cycle sharing schemes. Similarly to Australia, riders can use their RMV card to pay for bike share usage, although in Rhine-Main, customers can also take advantage of the Stadtmobil car-share program by a simple tap of their RMV card. Soon riders will also be able to use their RMV card to pay for parking (on and off street), park and ride lots as well as purchase event tickets.

Is your city using a single way to pay for multiple forms of transit, tolls, parking or urban car/bike sharing schemes? Let us know in the comments and maybe we’ll feature it in a future post!